Faux Life: Things That Happen On TV But Not In Reality

[SoMuchTV]

3 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Most of my teachers taught until the bell rang.  Then there was the mad scramble to pack up and get to your next class -- I think we had ten minutes, but the school was fairly compact, so it was generally plenty.  

Lucky you!  I really don't remember how long I had, back in the dark ages, but one of my kids' school had a day when parents could come shadow, and I swear I was getting ulcers over the amount of time they had to get from one class to the next!

And bringing it back to the topic - every teenage show ever, where the kids have endless time to hang out at their lockers between classes and before/after school!  There was one where there were couches in the hall where they all lounged around!

[Ceindreadh]

2 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Maybe it was just my teachers,  but do most high school teachers keep teaching until the bell rings? My teachers always wrapped up a few minutes before the bell. Some would even let us line up by the door so when the bell rang, we could just walk out.

I had one maths teacher who would teach up until the bell went, finish whatever problem he was working on and *then* say a Hail Mary before he'd let us go.  And woe betide anybody who dared start packing their books away before he was finished.  He was the school principal so nobody could say anything about it. 

[Unclejosh]

Never allowed to line up at the door. Had to remain in seat until bell rang. Most taught right up to the bell but occasionally they would finish a minute or 2 early so you could gather your stuff and pack up and wait for bell. That was pretty uncommon though.

[Zella]

2 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

I took a course that was supposed to be on the French Revolution and Napoleon and by the end of the semester we had just gotten to 1789.  I don't know what happened to my prof that spring, but he wasted the whole semester talking about the lead up.

Sounds like the guy I took US History I and II from. US History I was supposed to cover up to the Civil War and then US History II was supposed to pick up from then until modern times. In reality, US History I covered up to the American Revolution. For US History II, he jumped ahead to the Lincoln Assassination and wrapped up around WWII. I ended up getting a degree in history, so my upper-level electives filled in a lot of the missing time periods, but I still remain quite spotty in my knowledge of the Early Republic. LOL 

[DoctorAtomic]

Ten minutes between classes? Did you have time to lounge by the beach on the way to your next class? Did you go to the Peach Pit and get a latte and have a chat? We had five. 

I was always late to one class at the other end of the school because I had gym prior. So the teacher got mad and yelled at me. I said, "I'm usually in the shower when the bell rings. I can skip it to be on time." He told the gym teacher to make sure to give me a late pass. (Sometimes the gym teacher was not in the locker room because he was getting ready for the next period.)

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by DoctorAtomic

[AstridM]

17 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Maybe it was just my teachers,  but do most high school teachers keep teaching until the bell rings? My teachers always wrapped up a few minutes before the bell. Some would even let us line up by the door so when the bell rang, we could just walk out.

Some of mine did. 

[Katy M]

11 hours ago, AstridM said:

Some of mine did. 

i htink pretty much all of mine did. When class is only 40-45 minutes long you have to use all of them.  And not a bell issue, but I had one prof in college who went at least 5 minutes over every class. I was almost always late to my next class.

[Blergh]

All my teachers taught until the bell rang- then would scold if any student was late.

I recall one teacher who kept saying to the tardies that only those with notes from other teachers wouldn't be punished for tardiness. Anyway, after repeating this refrain, the last student came in and smirked that he 'HAD a note' which got the class to go 'OOOOOOOOOH!!' and the teacher to cancel that exemption from that point on . Yeah, I could tell he hated being shown up in front of the other students!

[DoctorAtomic]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

And not a bell issue, but I had one prof in college who went at least 5 minutes over every class. I was almost always late to my next class.

We had one who thought it was a big joke and called it 'bonus time'. It's not only unfair to the students who *do* have a class after, but it's also disrespectful of his fellow professors that his class time was more valuable than theirs. 

14 minutes ago, Blergh said:

I recall one teacher who kept saying to the tardies that only those with notes from other teachers wouldn't be punished for tardiness.

We called those late passes, but, as I said before, the gym teacher would give me one to be late to my next class when I explained my situation. It was basically a sanctioned excuse. 

If you were late for no reason, you had to get a late pass from the principal's office, and if you got too many of those, then you got detention. My situation for the shower was that the teacher let me be 2 minutes late, but because I was always being late, pulled authority because he thought I was showing him up, and told me I would have to get the bad late pass until I explained I was in the shower. 

Fun fact, I had to get a bad late pass because one of the teacher's had a hair up their ass one time, but I looked like another guy, everyone said so, and the aide wrote the pass out for him because she wasn't paying attention and thought I was him. 

Edited September 14, 2023 by DoctorAtomic

[Katy M]

On 9/12/2023 at 9:49 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

Ten minutes between classes? Did you have time to lounge by the beach on the way to your next class? Did you go to the Peach Pit and get a latte and have a chat? We had five. 

I was always late to one class at the other end of the school because I had gym prior. So the teacher got mad and yelled at me. I said, "I'm usually in the shower when the bell rings. I can skip it to be on time." He told the gym teacher to make sure to give me a late pass. (Sometimes the gym teacher was not in the locker room because he was getting ready for the next period.)

 

We weren't allowed to take showers after gym.  I always thought those were an only on tv thing.

[Danielg342]

On 9/12/2023 at 6:47 PM, Zella said:

Sounds like the guy I took US History I and II from. US History I was supposed to cover up to the Civil War and then US History II was supposed to pick up from then until modern times. In reality, US History I covered up to the American Revolution. For US History II, he jumped ahead to the Lincoln Assassination and wrapped up around WWII. I ended up getting a degree in history, so my upper-level electives filled in a lot of the missing time periods, but I still remain quite spotty in my knowledge of the Early Republic. LOL 

At least in my high school, my teachers were generally unqualified for the subjects they taught because, unless it was something like math, the school believed "anyone" could do the subject...and they were horribly wrong.

I have a history degree too. I've had a love of history basically my entire life. I actually knew more about history than the teacher who was assigned to teach it to me in my tenth grade. I even corrected her numerous times, and she even asked me questions to understand what she was teaching the class.

One time, the class called for a map of Europe in 1914. I drew it on the blackboard from memory (albeit I will grant the map of Europe in 1914 is pretty easy to draw).

Then there was another time she confused Crete with Cyprus (which, for some reason, she pronounced it as "cippers"...don't know how you get that). This was the one time she tried to stand up to me, so another student helped me out, pulled out the textbook and found a map that proved I was right.

She only got the history gig because the school needed bodies. She was usually a religion teacher (I was in a Catholic high school until my last year of high school) and she was tasked with teaching "modern" Canadian history (which, for some reason, didn't go past 1960), so the school likely didn't think her lack of knowledge was a big deal.

I could go on another rant about how much stuff high school history courses tend to leave out, but I'll just conclude with the one thing that irritates me more about how history class is presented.

Despite what you think, history is not "names and dates". Sure, knowing that Alexander the Great came before Julius Caesar is important, but no real history teacher will fault you if you don't know the exact dates of their lifespans. It's more important to understand their contributions to history and how it fits into the wider historical narrative.

I had a great memory so I was never that bad with names and dates to begin with, but I think a lot more people would be interested in history if they realized it's really not about rote memorization of details but about knowing "the story of the past".

[AgathaC]

1 hour ago, Danielg342 said:

At least in my high school, my teachers were generally unqualified for the subjects they taught because, unless it was something like math, the school believed "anyone" could do the subject...and they were horribly wrong.

I have a history degree too. I've had a love of history basically my entire life. I actually knew more about history than the teacher who was assigned to teach it to me in my tenth grade. I even corrected her numerous times, and she even asked me questions to understand what she was teaching the class.

One time, the class called for a map of Europe in 1914. I drew it on the blackboard from memory (albeit I will grant the map of Europe in 1914 is pretty easy to draw).

Then there was another time she confused Crete with Cyprus (which, for some reason, she pronounced it as "cippers"...don't know how you get that). This was the one time she tried to stand up to me, so another student helped me out, pulled out the textbook and found a map that proved I was right.

She only got the history gig because the school needed bodies. She was usually a religion teacher (I was in a Catholic high school until my last year of high school) and she was tasked with teaching "modern" Canadian history (which, for some reason, didn't go past 1960), so the school likely didn't think her lack of knowledge was a big deal.

I could go on another rant about how much stuff high school history courses tend to leave out, but I'll just conclude with the one thing that irritates me more about how history class is presented.

Despite what you think, history is not "names and dates". Sure, knowing that Alexander the Great came before Julius Caesar is important, but no real history teacher will fault you if you don't know the exact dates of their lifespans. It's more important to understand their contributions to history and how it fits into the wider historical narrative.

I had a great memory so I was never that bad with names and dates to begin with, but I think a lot more people would be interested in history if they realized it's really not about rote memorization of details but about knowing "the story of the past".

Preach, fellow history major! I had the most awesome history teachers all the way through, so it makes me sad to see bad teachers. It’s so easy to turn people off from history, but it has so much potential to be fun and interesting (not to mention how important it is).

Anyway, my high school teachers were pretty good about ending on time. Our campus was sprawling and they were respectful of that. I did have a college professor who had no concept of time. And there was a girl who had zero common sense who would invariably answer a question after the bell rang — and he would always answer, both oblivious to the fact the rest of us had our books closed and were straining in our seats.

One thing I never identified with in TV (and movies, really) was the “popular crowd” and “cool kids.” I’m sure there were schools where that existed, but my high school (public school with roughly 1,000 students in grades 10-12 — 9th was at the junior high) wasn’t particularly hierarchical. There were different groups, but no one ruled the school. It was pretty drama-free in that regard. But that doesn’t make for interesting tv.

[Laura Holt]

45 minutes ago, AgathaC said:

One thing I never identified with in TV (and movies, really) was the “popular crowd” and “cool kids.” I’m sure there were schools where that existed, but my high school (public school with roughly 1,000 students in grades 10-12 — 9th was at the junior high) wasn’t particularly hierarchical. There were different groups, but no one ruled the school. It was pretty drama-free in that regard. But that doesn’t make for interesting tv.

Same.  My high school was like a small town IIRC there were about 1500 students, possibly more, but we went from grade 7-11.  Anyway we did have a core group of students who seemed to be on every committee and actually "got involved".  They were a little annoying but mainly in the way your big sister is annoying.  Always telling you what to do, a little bossy but not mean spirited.  In some ways I guess like the way the more gentle kid oriented shows like Saved By the Bell portray high school.  The same 5-6 kids do everything but are decent kids.

[Ohiopirate02]

59 minutes ago, AgathaC said:

One thing I never identified with in TV (and movies, really) was the “popular crowd” and “cool kids.” I’m sure there were schools where that existed, but my high school (public school with roughly 1,000 students in grades 10-12 — 9th was at the junior high) wasn’t particularly hierarchical. There were different groups, but no one ruled the school. It was pretty drama-free in that regard. But that doesn’t make for interesting tv.

I've said this before on this thread however many pages ago--my high school had cliques but no "popular crowd" and no mean girls who ruled the school.  We also had two dances a year, homecoming and junior-senior prom, and no one even bothered to go to the homecoming dance.  Nobody cared who was crowned prom queen nor who did not make the cheerleading squad, and it wasn't the end of the world for you to not have a boyfriend while in high school.  We all pretty much got along with a couple of fights breaking out here and there mostly girls going at it over boys, but those fights were the "in group" kind and not the country boys beefing with the boys from the projects for example. 

But we were like this because we all had a chip on our shoulder thanks to the local school board.  Back in the 90s there was a huge disparity between the two high schools technically within the largest town in my county.  One got all the resources and a carefully constructed school district designed to weed out the "undesirable" students.  My high school got its correct geographical students and those students that the other high school weeded out.  We were designed by the adults to be the problem high school in the county, and all of us knew it.  We chose to defy the expectations of the school board in any way we could.  So, we got along because they expected us to be the school where weekly fights broke out.  We studied hard and demanded more AP courses.  The other high school had a girl's soccer team and we did not, so a group of girls got together and found a teacher willing to be a coach.  We were lucky that we had enough teachers who were just as angry as we were about the blatant disparities.  They were the ones who pointed out to us the school district map that had the other high school sitting smack dab in our district.  The students who lived across the street from it were bussed out to our school instead of being able to walk to the school (exceptions were made naturally for those who displayed athletic potential).  

[DoctorAtomic]

4 hours ago, Katy M said:

We weren't allowed to take showers after gym.  I always thought those were an only on tv thing.

I don't know if maybe because I was on all the sports teams and had my own locker or not. I wasn't the only one, but I did it every week. 

I mean, they could have told me no, but I'm already starkers at that point. You going to send me to the principal? 

2 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

I have a history degree too. I've had a love of history basically my entire life. I actually knew more about history than the teacher who was assigned to teach it to me in my tenth grade. I even corrected her numerous times, and she even asked me questions to understand what she was teaching the class.

Our history teacher was a favorite. He used a college textbook too. I took the same courses in college to meet the history requirement and just blew the doors off it because he already had us writing at a college level. We read journal articles too. 

54 minutes ago, Laura Holt said:

My high school was like a small town IIRC there were about 1500 students, possibly more, but we went from grade 7-11. 

That's small town? We had less than half of that from 7 to 12. Maybe 600. 

[Unclejosh]

Never once did anyone take a shower after gym. At least in the men's locker room. Only ones who used them were the athletes for practices/games.  

[Notabug]

When I was in high school, there were showers in the locker room and we were supposed to have 15 minutes after gym to shower.  In my 3 years there, I never saw anyone actually take a shower.  Like my friends, I'd just change out of my gym clothes and into street clothes when class was over.

[Laura Holt]

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

That's small town? We had less than half of that from 7 to 12. Maybe 600. 

There were actually about 3,000 but our school was half French and half English.  I guess this is one reason (among many) that most shows and movies about high school were never close to my experience.

[DoctorAtomic]

I can smell all you non showering people all the way over here. 

[proserpina65]

On 9/12/2023 at 3:52 PM, Ohiopirate02 said:

I took a course that was supposed to be on the French Revolution and Napoleon and by the end of the semester we had just gotten to 1789.  I don't know what happened to my prof that spring, but he wasted the whole semester talking about the lead up.  I came away from that class knowing more than I needed to about Louis XIV and Louis XV and nothing about Robespierre or Danton.  

I had a history professor at college who spent more than half of a semester of The Early Middle Ages on the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.  Okay, yeah, important foundational info, but still, should've been covered in the first couple of weeks.  Fortunately she was a visiting professor and the regular one was back when I took The High Middle Ages the next semester.

My high school teachers were mostly well into their careers so they knew how to wrap up class with a minute or two to spare before the bell.

7 hours ago, Katy M said:

We weren't allowed to take showers after gym.  I always thought those were an only on tv thing.

We did in both middle and high schools.  Which meant showering with the mean girls who bullied me.  I got lucky in high school because gym was my last class of the day the only year I had to take it, and I didn't care if I smelled sweaty on the bus.

[proserpina65]

3 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

my high school had cliques but no "popular crowd" and no mean girls who ruled the school. 

Lucky you.  My school had maybe 350-400 students max, and there was definitely a popular crowd.  Most of them were okay but there were a few mean girls who were bullies.  And it was always girls.  The popular guys were either friendly or just ignored people they didn't think were cool.

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

That's small town? We had less than half of that from 7 to 12. Maybe 600.

Doesn't sound like a small school to me either.

I envy those of you who weren't forced to shower with other students.

[Unclejosh]

The water to the showers was actually turned off in my school.  If anyone did want to take one you had to get permission for them to turn it on. No one did that I am aware of. They turned it on before athletic events/practices but not during regular school day.

They didn't even have enough time from the end of gym class until the bell for the next class ran to do it anyway. Was like 4 minutes from the time class ended before the bell rang so you have to get changed in that time and be ready to leave the locker room to head to your next class (or leave if you were lucky enough to have gym as the last class). You would always see girls doing their makeup in the hallways or at the start of classes since they didn't have a lot of time to do it after gym.

 

[DoctorAtomic]

That's why I got the pass from the gym teacher. 

[Ohiopirate02]

18 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

Lucky you.  My school had maybe 350-400 students max, and there was definitely a popular crowd.  Most of them were okay but there were a few mean girls who were bullies.  And it was always girls.  The popular guys were either friendly or just ignored people they didn't think were cool.

The cliques that we had were deeply ingrained.  I went to high school with people who had been in the same daycare then went to the same preschool, elementary, and middle school.  Also, my high school had 5 or 6 middle schools that fed into it plus the private school kids who made the jump to public school.  The petty middle school hierarchies melted away in the 9th grade.  We all started from scratch as freshmen.  And we also had faculty and staff that made sure to nip anything in the bud almost immediately.  

[andromeda331]

My 8th grade history teacher is what sparked my love of history. He really brought it live.  He used different voices for different people, different accents for different countries. Started the French revolution section with 'yes it's the head chopping revolution they were really chopping like crazy' and Washington's army in the American Revolution as the fire and run away army other stuff that appealed to thirteen year olds. History isn't boring but so many teachers make it boring. 

[Katy M]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I can smell all you non showering people all the way over here. 

I'm sure you probably could.  Freshman year, I had gym right before lunch, so half the day still to go.  Sophomore year, I had it 7th period, so just Chemistry left and then I was out of there.

[Laura Holt]

17 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

History isn't boring but so many teachers make it boring. 

Grade 10 Canadian History - the teacher spent so much time talking about the fur trade and building the railroad west that we never made it out of the 19th century.  

[DoctorAtomic]

21 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

  I went to high school with people who had been in the same daycare then went to the same preschool, elementary, and middle school. 

I did too, but we weren't really cliquey. You had the captain of the soccer team also in band. Cheerleaders were in drama. So there was way more cross pollination than you see on tv. 

 

[AgathaC]

Also, the whole “smart kids are unpopular nerds” trope. Again, I’m sure that exists. But if you were to look at the honor students at my school, the vast majority were involved in groups and social activities. If we had had a “popular crowd,” most of them would have been in it. I was a straight-A teacher’s pet type and was always treated kindly and with a lot of respect by my cooler classmates despite my shyness and nerdy tendencies.

Before I started high school, I had nothing but TV and movies to go by and went in terrified, only to discover it was absolutely nothing like TV. (Of course, on the not as great side, I discovered classes weren’t 5 minutes long with a half hour between.)

Edited September 14, 2023 by AgathaC

[Bastet]

9 hours ago, Katy M said:

We weren't allowed to take showers after gym.  I always thought those were an only on tv thing.

I'm gobsmacked by this.  A bunch of sweaty teenagers just had to sit around and stink?  I think showering was a requirement at my school.  Nobody washed their hair, I don't think, but we soaped off.  (I went to a small private school, so class sizes were small, and in any given gym class, there were enough showers to go around.)

[partofme]

9 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I'm gobsmacked by this.  A bunch of sweaty teenagers just had to sit around and stink?  I think showering was a requirement at my school.  Nobody washed their hair, I don't think, but we soaped off.  (I went to a small private school, so class sizes were small, and in any given gym class, there were enough showers to go around.)

I also went to a junior high and high school where no one ever showered after gym class.  I don't remember anyone ever being particularly sweaty, particularly in high school where the girls were mostly allowed to sit around the side of the gym and chat during class, we were given a passing grade in gym as long as we changed our clothes.

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, partofme said:

I don't remember anyone ever being particularly sweaty, particularly in high school where the girls were mostly allowed to sit around the side of the gym and chat during class,

I hope it was like that in these other schools with no showering.  At mine, we rotated through sports, doing each one for a while -- basketball, volleyball, softball, track & field, cross country, archery -- so other than archery (and maybe even then if it was hot outside), we got sweaty. 

[Browncoat]

Not only were we required to shower after PE, which we had every day, the PE teacher actually checked our names off a list and made sure we did.  The only time we didn't have to was if we had our periods, and we had to tell the teacher we were "reporting" to get out of the group shower situation.  It was horrible.

We rotated through sports, too -- basketball, gymnastics, tennis, softball/baseball, and volleyball.  We had introductions to things like field hockey and soccer, but didn't spend a lot of time on those.

[Mabinogia]

10 hours ago, Katy M said:

We weren't allowed to take showers after gym.  I always thought those were an only on tv thing.

I actually flunked gym because I refused to take a shower. The showers had no curtain/door/whatever, they were just open for anyone to point and mock you (middle school girls are the worst!) So I just didn't participate. I wasn't about to spend the rest of the day (had gym sometime before lunch) all gross from unshowered sweat. 

[Bastet]

12 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

The showers had no curtain/door/whatever,

Our locker room had maybe half a dozen stalls, for people who wanted privacy, and the rest were open (just a bunch of showerheads lined up along the walls).  I didn't care, so I never paid attention to whether there was a mad rush to grab one of the stalls.  Hopefully six was adequate, but it's entirely possible there were girls miserably showering in the open.

[DoctorAtomic]

I did not have any stalls. 

[Browncoat]

We did not have stalls, either -- just a big square area with some shower heads. 

[possibilities]

Our school didn't have showers either. I remember how upset I was about it. We did have sports we were required to participate in and that did often mean being sweaty all day after class. 

[Danielg342]

18 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

We were designed by the adults to be the problem high school in the county, and all of us knew it.

I don't know why Hollywood hasn't done a series about a high school like yours. The problems of poorly funded, "lower-tier" high schools are well-known, and there's a lot within those settings that can be explored and milked for great drama. A lot of it, too, would be realistic- Hollywood wouldn't have to "manufacture" drama like they do in other high school shows.

15 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

My school had maybe 350-400 students max, and there was definitely a popular crowd.  Most of them were okay but there were a few mean girls who were bullies.  And it was always girls.  The popular guys were either friendly or just ignored people they didn't think were cool.

My town had two high schools- one with 2,000 students, which was part of the secular school system, and one with 700, which was part of the Catholic school system (Ontario's school system allows Catholic schools to be publicly funded). The one with 700 students definitely had a "popular" crowd and was incredibly cliquey. So cliquey that- literally- many who were in my graduating year went to the same university.

The school with 2,000 students was definitely not cliquey. At least not in the Hollywood sense with tiers. Everyone had their own friend groups, and they usually stuck with them, but I don't recall any "class warfare" going on at the school.

It was an eye-opener for me because it helped show to me that I needed to be in the city, not a small town, because I just didn't "fit in" with the town. Which is something Hollywood never seems to acknowledge. If you don't "fit in" in a small town, you'll never have a good time.

14 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

My 8th grade history teacher is what sparked my love of history. He really brought it live.  He used different voices for different people, different accents for different countries. Started the French revolution section with 'yes it's the head chopping revolution they were really chopping like crazy' and Washington's army in the American Revolution as the fire and run away army other stuff that appealed to thirteen year olds. History isn't boring but so many teachers make it boring. 

That's a history teacher I would have loved to have.

14 hours ago, Laura Holt said:

Grade 10 Canadian History - the teacher spent so much time talking about the fur trade and building the railroad west that we never made it out of the 19th century.  

Was your teacher not qualified to teach history? I would say that's a byproduct of not knowing the material you are teaching- because someone with a real grasp of history would know what would be important and what isn't, and not go on tangents.

[ABay]

Someone once had the insanity to say to me that high school is the best years of your life.If I'd believed it, I would've killed myself at 16.

[Unclejosh]

High school sucked for me at least. I would not relive those days for anything. 

Now out of school I had some great times but in school was the worst. I sat alone at lunch every day. Sat alone on the bus to and from every day. I just went from class to class and immediately sat down and opened a book and read during all free time.

While I had friends, none were in any of my classes or had the same schedule so I almost never saw them other than in passing. I skipped so many days due to it.  My senior year I skipped 45 days. F that place.

[Lugal]

In middle school and high school there was showers, but after sixth grade none of us ever used them.  I slipped once in the shower and hit my head, and had a headache for a while afterward, but was otherwise seemingly fine.  Never showered after that.  That's probably a liability for the school.  Honestly, other than the hardcore jocks, I don't think any of the rest of us ever put in the effort to work up a sweat for a shower.  No one in high school showered after gym, mostly because there wouldn't have been enough time.

20 hours ago, AgathaC said:

But if you were to look at the honor students at my school, the vast majority were involved in groups and social activities. If we had had a “popular crowd,” most of them would have been in it.

That's how it was at my school, there was this one group of girls who were involved in everything: academics, athletics, etc.

43 minutes ago, Unclejosh said:

High school sucked for me at least. I would not relive those days for anything. 

Someone once told me "High school is the closest I hope you ever come to being incarcerated."

3 hours ago, ABay said:

Someone once had the insanity to say to me that high school is the best years of your life.If I'd believed it, I would've killed myself at 16.

I remember way back then I lived in fear of growing up to be one of those 35-year-olds looking back on high school as the best time of their life.  Fortunately, some of my best memories are after high school.

[proserpina65]

20 hours ago, partofme said:

I don't remember anyone ever being particularly sweaty, particularly in high school where the girls were mostly allowed to sit around the side of the gym and chat during class, we were given a passing grade in gym as long as we changed our clothes.

We had to actually participate in physical activity, so yeah, we got sweaty, depending on the activity.  Basketball, volleyball, track, baseball, tennis - all kinds of sports.

20 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

The showers had no curtain/door/whatever, they were just open for anyone to point and mock you (middle school girls are the worst!)

Our workaround was to wrap our towels around us and go into the shower that way.  Still sucked.  Middle school girls are indeed awful, at least when I was one.

[Mabinogia]

I feel bad for anyone for whom high school was the best time of their lives. It's such a short period of your life, rather towards the beginning of it, and for most people you really don't have that much freedom. If you peak at 17/18 the next 50-80 years are going to draaaaaag. 

One thing I do think shows get right is the idea that, if you felt alone, stiffled, trapped in high school, college really does open up your world in a major way. The idea that you are no longer stuck with all the same people you've known most of your life. What I don't think is necessarily true is that if you were popular, a jock, the big fish in your small high school pond that you will automatically be lost in college. I find that the popular kids, at least in my school, had damned good social skills that lead them to be pretty popular in college and beyond as well. 

I get they are trying to make us loners, outcasts and "weirdos" feel better about how shit high school was for us, by saying that our time will come, which is great, but it isn't a seesaw where the balance shifts and the outcasts triumph while the popular kids plumet. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I can't complain about high school. I'm still friends with everyone thanks to Facebook. Say what you want about it, but we planned our reunion on Facebook and just about everyone showed up. I'm still friends with people from college too. But, I mean, it's like, how can you not want to hang out with me?

What I didn't like was being micromanaged to the minute. Homework due *every* day. Go here now. Then go there. 8 hours out of the day being controlled by bells. 

23 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

One thing I do think shows get right is the idea that, if you felt alone, stiffled, trapped in high school, college really does open up your world in a major way. The idea that you are no longer stuck with all the same people you've known most of your life.

My cousin's daughter has flourished in college. She was always bright and not shy, for example, at xmas (which was when I only saw her), but apparently didn't have many friends or did much in high school. She's doing great in college, and involved in activities, has a job. My mother remarked that she didn't know what happened. I said exactly that - Maybe she just didn't like the people she was stuck with for the last 6 years. Maybe she didn't like being micromanaged. 

[JustHereForFood]

Reading this discussion, I am so glad that we didn't have to shower in school either. I am not even sure if our school had showers somewhere. I didn't have any specific body issues, but I was never much comfortable changing in front of other people even if it was just people of the same sex, so the idea of having to shower without any curtains sounds like one of the worst nightmares to me. 

It sounds like prison honestly, and like a lot of other high school realities is probably the worst for those who already have other problems on their plate, like victims of bullying, kids with eating disorders / body issues, etc. And that's before factoring in students being gay or trans.

[andromeda331]

For me middle school was the nightmare. It was hell. Bullied all the time, my best friend became a bitch and ditched me, I faked sick often to get out of going or to go home early. High school was better for me. I had a new group of friends including my best friend for years, I wasn't bullied anymore.  

[OtterMommy]

Okay folks, time to get back to things that happen on TV (but not in real life).  You can continue the High School conversations over in the Small Talk thread.

[Raja]

If you are a lawyer starting a private practice your first client will become your indentured servant to pay you back for your legal services 

[Katy M]

On 10/2/2023 at 4:04 PM, Raja said:

If you are a lawyer starting a private practice your first client will become your indentured servant to pay you back for your legal services 

Or you will just provide all your services for free making the audience wonder how you pay your bills.